Glasgow: Scotway House

DAWSON-WAM was contracted by Graham Construction to design and construct the bearing piles for the first phase of a new student village in Glasgow.

Scotway House is located on the historic site of the former Meadowside Shipyard Office – which recorded the build of more than 30 anchor line ships in its day – and will house 399 students when it opens in September 2019.

The building footprint bisected an old graving dock which had been historically infilled and offered significant challenges in constructing the foundations for the new structure. Piles were installed within the centre of the dock and behind the existing dock walls to allow a transfer slab to be cast across the existing dock walls to reduce the risk of piles being obstructed.

Piles were installed using Cased CFA methods due to the presence of soft soils and made ground to significant depth overlaying the strong sandstone. Piles were all rock socketed into the sandstone up to 2m to carry the building loads.

In all over 350 bearing piles were installed to carry the new structure which was 14 storeys in height. Three static load tests were completed on the site and performed exceptionally well with the worst moving <2mm at SWL and <3.5mm at maximum load.